Starter for hydrocarbon-engines.



0. BRISBOIS. STARTER TOR HYDROGARBON ENGINES.

APPLICATION-FILED, SEPT. 12, 1908.

- Patented June 7,1910,

2 sums-sham 1.

0. B RISBOIS STARTER r03 HYDRfiGABBON BNGINES.

' AHLI'OATION FILED BEPTJZ, 1908.

Patented June 7, 1910.

2 BHEETS-BHEE'I 2 ll/l'fiz eases:

. shaft charges of carburetedair; and

'tents of the engine cylinder and UNKTE STATES AENT FFICE.

ODILON 33133013 OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 AUTOMATIC STARTER COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

STARTER FOR HYDROCARJBON-ENGINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 7, 1910.

Application filed September 12, 1908. Serial No. 452,732.

To all whom time y concern:

Be it known that I, come Bnrsnois, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Starters for Hydro carbon-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

The main objects of this invention are to provide improved means for starting multicylinder hydrocarbon engines without cranking or manually rotating the crank thereof; to provide improved means for simultaneously injecting into all of the cylinders. bf a multicylinder engine like to provide improved means for discharging the conther'eby insurin that the carbureted air which is inserted into the cylinders by the starting apparatus will reach the igniting devices in the 1 cylinders and will not be diluted by burned gases already in the cylinders. These m'ultioylinder engine cquippedwith starting apparatus constructed according to this invention. .Fig. 2 is a side elevation showing the arrangement of the pet-cocks and auxiliary fuel pipes which form a part of the starting apparatus, the connections between the pet-cocks and the tops of the-cylinders being somewhat exaggerated for the sake of" clearness of the drawing. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of the pump and the carhureter of,the'starter, the pump cylinder and the manifold being shown in section. Fig. 4 is a vertical section of the carbureter on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a'sectional detail showing the arrangement of the spark plugs and blow-off pet-cocks.

In the drawings the engine cylinders 1 are indicated in outline, each being provided with a spark plug 2 forming part of the electrical ignition apparatus of any usual form. As the main carbureter which is used during the normal operation of the engine, the fuel tanks. and the operating mechanism of the engine do not form a part of the herein described 1nvent1on, they are omitted from the drawings.

In the construction shown. the starting the manifold which 7 may bepump, there being a chamber located adjacent to the valves 6 and theh' pump cylinders 5 respectively, both sets of check-valves being adapted to permit a flow of carbureted air toward the engine cylinder, but to prevent a return flow. The check valves 7 prevent the possibility of igniting Q the explosive mixture in the pipes 4. All.

of the pump chambers 5 areof equal area, and their pistons 9 have the same stroke. The piston rodsare all connected together by means of a cross-bar 0 operated by a lever 'll w-hich may be connected in any suitable manner so as to permit the pump to be readily operated by the chauifeurwhen occupying his usual lace in the vehicle.

The auxiliary cariiureter 12, from which carbureted airis supplied to the starting mechanism, is of a standard make, being rovided with an air inlet 13 and a fuel inet 14 controlled by the needle-valve 15. It is preferred to have a separate carbureter for the starting apparatus, as the starting conditions require a richer mixture than required under ordinary running conditions. The valve disk 16 is arranged to open throu h the suction of the pump chambers 5, an ,as will be seen from Fig. 4, it SQl-VES as a cut-off valve for both the air and fuel supply. The delivery outlet 17 of the carureter' is connected to the middle of one side .of' a cylindrical header or manifold 18,

as will be seen from Figs. 1 and 3. Each of the fuel supply pipes 4 is connected with by an individual pipe 19 which is provided with a check valve 9.0 and joins the pipe 4 at the-tee 21 between the respective pump chamber and check-valve 8.

A quantity of absorbent material 22, such as winking, incased in a brass screen 23 of fine mesh, is )laccd inside of the manifold 18 and extent s substantially throughout the entire length thereof, forming an obstruction to the direct flow of carbureted air from the carburetor to the pipes 19. Any oil which passes through the carburetor in liquid form" or in drops too large to form the properfexplosive mixture with the air is absorbed by thewicking 22 and retained within the header. The gas which is caused by the pumps to' flow to the enginecylinders is therefore air which is richly charged with hydrocarbon vapor, but free from any partides in liquid form. The oil which is taken up bythe wick gradually percolates to the bottom, and a pet-cock l8 permits the excess .of oil to be drained ofl' occasionally,

2 The blow-off pet-cocks 24, by means of which the contents of the 'cylinders of the engine may be permitted fesc'ape at the will of.

the operator, are preferably/located adjacent to the spark plugs2 so that when said pet-cocks are open, incombustible -gases in 'the vicinity of the sparking contacts will pass away and make room for fresh gases, 22am this oint.

v In the construction shown, the spark plugs have a. passage through. them, and the pet- .cocks'24 are connected to this passage at a point above the sparking electrodes. so'that the flow of gases .will blowoff any impurities or particles of carbon'which may have been deposited upon the electrodes during the previous operation of the engine. In order that all of the pet-cocks 24; may be simultaneously opened by the operator, the operating levers 25 afe allconnected with one bar26 which is connected to a handle 27 within-convenient rea'lili of the operator. A second handle 28 is-connected in similar manner'with the levers 291m? the valves 6.

The operation ofthe device shown is as follows ZQTO start. the engine, the handle 28 is pulled by the operator so as to open the valves 6 to open communication with the starting pump chambers, said valves being .lisliallyplqsed during the normaloperation of the engines; The handle 27 is then pulled so as to open thfipet-coaks 24 and allow the escape of the gasesfrom the engine cylinders 1, so as to be sure that a proper explosive charge will -fill the cylinder and reach the sparking electrodes. While the pet-cocks 24 are still open, the, pump is given one or two strokes, thus causing fresh gas to displace all of the incombustible gases which may be present in any of the cylinders. The pet-cocks 24 are then closed by means of the handle 27, and the pump is again oper- 5 ate'd one or more strokes, the number of strokes depending upon the relative aroportions of the pump and engine cylin ers.

The sparking circuit is then closed, and if the sparking apparatus of one of the cylinders is'in its firing position, ignition will take place in that cylinder, and the-engine will start. If neither of the sparking mech-v anisms is in firing position, the chauffeur shifts the spark shifting lever (not shown) until ignition takes placein one of the cylinders. The' resulting explosion moves the crank shaft,,and the charges in the remainingcylinders thereafter ignite in the usual manner, as when the engine is in its normal running condition. Even though the posi'-' tion of the crank shaftmay cause it to first turn in a reverse direction, the engine will nevertheless start forward when -ignition 1 takes place in another cylinder, on account of-the fact that the eccentrics will only'per mit theengine to run in one direction.

- When the pnmpsare operated, each pump chamberb delivers to its respective engine cylinder exactly the same amount of gas as is delivered by each of the other pum chamhers to the respective engine'cylin ers, regardless of the relative positions of the diferent pistons of the engine cylinders. If the exhaust port of one of the cylinders happens to be open, the charge of carbureted air merely passes through the-cylinder, but at least replaces by fresh carbnreted air any burned gases which are present. Whatever the position of. .the pistons of the cylinders whose cxhaustports are closed, the charge of fuel entering each cylinder will be correspondingly compressed, so that the same quantity of carbureted air is delivered to each of the cylinders by each operation of the pump. This feature is of vital importance to the successful operation of devices of this kind, as it insures that the charge will be an-explosive'mixture under proper compressionat thetiine when ignitiontakes place in each cylinder.

. ,During the operation of the pump, when the pistons are making their suction stroke,

the oil and air are drawn from the carbureter intothe manifold and are there freed by. the-wick 22 from any unvaporized .oil

which may be carried over. The oarbureted' air passes the check-valve 20, and during the compression stroke of the pump piston the check-valve 20 will-close, and the charge which has been drawn into the pump -cylinder will be forced through the-check valve 8 into the corresponding pi e 4, and thence into the engine cylinder. I he check-valves 7 prevent any possibility of ilglniting the mixture in the pipes 4 while t e 'valves 6 are open. Immediately upon proper starting of the engine, the operator pushes forward on the handle 28 so as to close the valves 6, so as to protect them from the combustion in the cylinders and also preventthe suction stroke of th pistons from drawing fuel from the pipes 4. After the engine has been running and has been stopped for but a short interval of time, so that the cylinders spark controlling lever in case the sparking cams do not happen to be in position for ig niting the charges in any ofthe cylinders.

When the engine has been stoppedfor a considerable length of time, so that its cylinders have become cold, the carbureted air which is confined in the cylinders will lose its explosive properties on account of the condensation of the hydrocarbon vapor, but if the valves of the engine are tight, little, if any, of the pressure will be lost. The cylin er in which ignition will first take place upon starting the engine is the one in which the compression stroke of the piston was taking place at the time that the engine came to rest. If it is now attempted to force a charge of gaseous fuel into this cylinder without first blowing off the contents thereof, the inert gas which is already confined in said cylinder will prevent the admission of enough of a charge to insure a proper explosive mixture at the sparkin electrodes,

mechanism will therefore fail to operate. p

With the herein described starting apparatus,"the operator may by simply pul mg the handle27 allow the contents to escape from all of the cylinders simultaneously, and thereby insure positive starting of the engine after the operation of the'starting apparatus. If proper ignition takes lace,

a multicylinder engine will start even if its.

crank shaft has stopped on dead center.

This seems to be due to the fact that theshock of the explosion which takes place within one cylin er causes strains uponthe crank shaft which are unequally resisted,

causing theshaft to move away from dead center, whereupon the pressure'of the ignited mixture causes it to rotate. The ignitlon of a charge in a second cylinder causes the engine to turn in a forward direction, as has gine at an time, regardless of what mayhavie been t e stopping position of the crank shat.

What I claim asmy invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is':-'

The combination of a multicylinder hydrocarboh engine, a carbureter, a pump having pumping chambers corresponding in number with the engine cylinders and connected respectively with the respective engine eylinders and with the carburetor for charging the engine cylinders with carbureted air, a single operating device for simultaneously operating said pumping chain bers, a manifold interposed in the connection between the carburetor and engine cylinders, and means in said manifold adapted to separate from .the'carbureted air the unvaporized liquid which may be presenttherein...

Signed at Chicago this 8th day of September 1908.

()DILON BRIS'BOIS.

" Witnesses:

E. A. RUMMLER, CARRIE M. SHERWOOD. 

